How your body loses fat

February 23, 9:08 AMNutrition ExaminerCarol Bardelli

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Is it time to lose your excess body fat?

My last article on carb cycling brings up an excellent point many low carbohydrate advocates and dieters overlook. Active amateur and professional athletes, including those who weight train or pursue bodybuilding, have different energy needs than sedentary and moderately active people.

The physiological mechanism behind low carbohydrate weight loss theory is ketosis. Ketosis is one way the body uses body fat. The mechanism “is a stage in metabolism occurring when the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies which can be used by the body for energy."

But ketosis is not the only way to lose body fat. If it were, moderate and high carbohydrate diets like the Biggest Loser diet, Weight Watchers, Nutri-system, and The Dr. Oz Diet would not work at all. And we all know these diets work if you stick to them. My brother once lost over 100 pounds on Weight Watchers and kept it off while he stuck to their principles. He only gained it back when he returned to eating processed and junk foods, stopped exercising, and ignored portion control.

The human body will lose body fat in several situations besides low carbohydrate induced ketosis:

Increased Energy Demands Including Exercise

Calorie Deficit

Increases In Metabolism Including Adding Muscle Mass

Illness and Wasting Diseases

Increased Energy Demands Including Exercise - It’s quite possible to lose body fat through increasing your energy demands alone. You will still have to be aware of your diet and eat within your daily energy needs (example: daily caloric requirement of 2000, daily calories consumed between 1800-2200).

The obvious method to increase the energy demands on your body is exercise. This can be through a combination of increased daily activity (taking the stairs instead of the elevator), aerobic exercise (treadmill, jogging, dance), and resistance training. As long as you burn more calories than your body requires you will lose body fat.

Calorie Deficit – This can be achieved through cutting calories alone or by limiting a macro-nutrient - carbohydrates, fat, or protein - as long as you do not increase consumption of other macro-nutrients (limiting protein is not recommended for healthy active individuals). Combined with exercise a caloric deficit is doubly effective.

One of the pitfalls of low carbohydrate diets when not combined with portion and calorie control or at least awareness of portion size is you can out strip your diet by eating too much. Dr. Atkins warned of this in his “Atkins For Life” book.

I remember a friend wo is a low carb dieter telling me he went out to dinner and ate two slabs of prime rib with vegetables. One 12 ounce restaurant portion of prime rib is 1187 calories, 105 grams of fat, 56 grams of protein, 0 carbs. Two restaurant size portions of prime rib with vegetables will run you over 2400 calories, 100 grams of protein, and 60 grams of fat. Unless you’re Jay Cutler or Ronnie Coleman there is no way you need that much calories, protein, or fat in one sitting. And these bodybuilding pros know better than to eat that many calories, protein and fat at one meal. That meal would have been enough for two or three Jay Cutler sized meals!

Later this low carber wondered why his low carb diet (with mega-feasts) didn’t result in weight loss. Simply put, this dieter outstripped his daily caloric requirement by indulging in gluttonous amounts of low carbohydrate food at one meal. It's a low carbohydrate diet fallacy that calories don't count. Check out Dr. Atkins "Atkins For Life" pages 73-75 if you don't believe me.

Beware that cutting calories too drastically (under 1200 for women and under 1800 for men) for long periods of time lowers your metabolism and slows body fat loss. It will also result in loss of muscle mass and other vital tissues. The pitfalls of extreme low calorie dieting are discussed here

Increases In Metabolism – Metabolism – specifically how many calories we burn in a day - is influenced by factors you cannot control including age, sex, genetics, and by factors you can influence, particularly how much muscle mass you have and how many calories you burn through activity. Adding muscle to your body is an efficient metabolism booster with a plethora of other benefits.

A pound of muscle is more compact than a pound of fat and more metabolically active. A pound of body fat burns roughly 3 calories a day while a pound of muscle burns roughly 50 calories a day. Muscle is firm and attractive while body fat is soft and in too great a quantity unappealing. Muscle increases your strength, endurance and metabolism.

People who are sedentary or ignore resistance training naturally loose muscle mass (about 3 percent a decade between 30 and 80 years of age). This is the chief reason people experience a slowed metabolism as they age. With loss of muscle mass comes a lowered calorie demand. If you eat them same amount of calories as you did before losing muscle you will gain body fat.

Illness and Wasting Diseases – not a desirable method, folks. I just mention it because it’s a common phenomenon. If you lose weight without diet or exercise see your doctor to rule out a medical condition.